In The Valley Of Elah

"In The Valley Of Elah" isn't really a movie about the Iraq War - it's about the soldiers who return home from it and the parents of those soldiers who don't return home at all.

Written and directed by Paul Haggis (who did the equally superb "Crash" and "Million Dollar Baby"), the movie is far less showy than "Rendition" and less posturing than the ridiculous "Lions For Lambs". And while "Elah" has an unfolding power in its carefully measured pace, it's also braver in its assessment of the American military and their less-than-angelic ways...

Tommy Lee Jones and Susan Sarandon play Hank & Joan Deerfield, the parents of a young soldier Mike Deerfield, who has inexplicably gone missing since his return from a tour in Bosnia and Iraq in November 2004. Hank visits the base where his son bunked, but neither Jason Patrick as Lieutenant Kirklander, James Franco as Sgt. Carnelli nor any of his division buddies are helpful - and worse - many seem unnerved - almost as if they're hiding something very nasty. A local beleaguered Detective in the police force, single-parent Emily Sanders (played by a superb Charlize Theron) gets embroiled in what she suspects is a grieving father being shafted by the canny US military. And without giving away too much, on the story goes...

One of the movies great strengths is of course the presence and capability of real heavyweights like Jones, Sarandon and Theron. Tommy Lee in particular is sensational. Just when you thought you'd seen every stone-clad grimace he can throw at you, for "Elah" he digs down deep and finds tremulous moments that floor you with their power and humanity. His character Deerfield is "army" - old-school values and discipline - he presses his trousers over a table to get the crease right - fixes an American flag that has been hanging upside down - calls all women 'mam' and won't be seen without a clean shirt on in front of any of them. Yet Hank is not naive either - he knows that his boy's tour of Iraq wouldn't have been without sickening cruelty or even dishonour. But what gives the movie its emotional core is his skill at depicting that. You can 'feel' his barely-contained lashing-out rage bubbling underneath - or when he just quietly sits in his pick-up truck in sad-eyed despair - why are American sons left in pieces on scrubs for wild animals to feed on - did I impose my 'will' on my boy and force the army life on him - and why does civilian America not give a shit about any of it?

There's a scene where Sarandon walks away with her husband down a corridor - there's no music - just them walking away - her hand outstretched in disbelief. The camera stays stationary - watching them walk away in silence - and you know the buckle into his arms is going to come - you know it - and yet when it does - it still has the power of real hurt.

Theron is great too - one of the most intelligent actresses working in Hollywood today - she has her beauty toned down by dowdy dark hair and clunky uniforms - and it works - you concentrate on her first rate acting. There's a scene when she hugs her sleeping son at night who needs the bedroom door open because he's scared - she hugs him close - thankful that he is not another statistic of some ignored list somewhere - you 'feel' what is precious to us - and the utter devastation of having that link to our very soul taken away...

The supporting cast is also universally superb - really good actors in a quality film given quality material to work with - and they know it. Jason Patrick gets his part in years as the army spokesman trapped between the two worlds of the Army's need to cover up and the public's need for the truth; Josh Brolin plays the local Police Chief, weary of unsolved cases and ever so slightly disinterested, but a man who knows that his female detective will terrier out the ugly no matter what. Barry Corbin (of Northern exposure fame) puts in a touching old-army buddy cameo with Tommy Lee in a café, while Jake McLaughlin and Mehcad Brooks are idealistic and young as the 'just following orders' grunts. Wes Chatham in particular is chillingly fantastic as Corporal Penning - detached and jauntily psychotic as he discusses how hungry he gets after a good day's killing...

"In The Valley Of Elah" is a phrase from the Bible parable about David and Goliath - where David must beat his fear of the monster - and win. "Elah" is neither jolly nor pretty - but it has amazing truths in it. I thought it was an exceptional movie and it stayed with me long after I pressed the stop button. Much like war and its aftermath I suspect...

Put this film high on your 'must-see' list and well done to all the good people involved.

`In The Valley Elah' follows Tommy Lee Jones as he investigates the death of his son who has retuned from a tour of duty in Iraq and was murdered on a night out from base. Jones plays the roles of father perfectly and draws on his own military experience to aid Theron's character as she investigates the death further. The story is interspersed with footage the son shot in Iraq on his mobile phone, which fleshes the back story out and leads to a disquieting conclusion. Jones and Theron both acted superbly and Sarandon's role was shamefully small and with a steller supporting cast, the acting was amply taken care of. The storyline was ok, it lacked a certain tension you come to expect from these detective murder type stories, but it still managed to get you second guessing and intrigued whilst you watched. I feel Jones performance in `No Country For Old Men' to be better than this, but he certainly seems to be on a roll at the moment, picking class acting roles and performing them to perfection. For a couple of hours of solid acting and a fairly good murder thriller type story, set against the timely backdrop of the US war in Iraq, you can't do mush better than this. Worth a look.

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The movie centres around Jones as Hank Deerfield, a Vietnam veteran (presented at the outset as something of a patriot) who receives a message from the military that his son has gone "AWOL" on return from Iraq. Deerfield travels to the area in order to conduct his own search however, shortly after his arrival, dismembered and partly burnt human remains are found near the army base which are quickly identified as being his missing son. We also learn that Deerfield's other son joined the military but was killed in a training accident.

Most of the rest of the movie focuses on Deerfield's dogged attempts to get the death properly investigated - Susan Sarandon as his wife is pretty much relegated to an extended cameo role. The military want the affair to go away while the civil police assign Det. Sanders (Charlize Theron) who at the start of the film is evidently not taken seriously by her colleagues and gets the cases no-one else wants. Video footage taken from the son's mobile phone (secretly recovered by Deerfield from the barracks) is used to gradually fill in the back story of his tour in Iraq. Not the most effective tool and the events depicted on the phone (particularly when linked coherently towards the end of the movie) seem more concerned with denigrating the behaviour of US soldiers in Iraq than a key plot device. Indeed throughout the film, the producer seems anxious to show the Army personnel as dehumanised sub-humans inhabiting a drug fuelled shadow world of topless bars and clip joints.

The denouement when it comes is fairly low key and, particularly when we learn that Deerfield's son himself was not exactly the model soldier his father thought, is not all that satisfying. Indeed the movie just seems to come to a sudden and bleak end.

The pace is quite slow, more like a BBC drama - in fact take away the occasional profanity and some topless nudity it plays almost like a 1980's TV movie. Despite the ensemble cast, don't expect military drama on the scale of Courage Under Fire or A Few Good Men. Apart from a brief car and foot chase there's not really much action to speak of. The Blu-Ray picture and sound are adequate but this isn't really a movie to showcase your home cinema setup.

If you're in the mood for some sombre slow paced entertainment Valley of Elah might be worth a rental but I don't think it's a movie I'll be watching over again.